Category: MAW

When I first got to vietnam, you grunts will not appreciate this story probably, we had cold water showers, Then the seabees came through and asked if we needed anything and we said  hot showers. They said no problem we have a hot water heater we'll loan you till you get your regular hot water tank. We said okay and they brought us this 5000 gallon tank mounted on a trailer with a gas powered heater which made the water hot. You came to the shower with your towel and one of you went outside and started the hot water heater like a lawnmower with a rope start. From there you had three minutes to take your shower at a progressivly hotter till to hot of a shower  and somebody went out and turned it off and then you could enjoy your shower for awhile. A real pain if by yourself.                   Another thing we had going for us  at 1st MAW was on sundays we had steak and ice cream for lunch and a lot of you grunts came visiting about this time for some unknown reason. Most of the time we could spot you for the red clay dust still on your boots and you always had your mess kit with you.  We would tap you on your shoulder and tell you to put your mess kit in the brush and pick it up after eating on your way home. Because we had plates and cups and silverware inside for you to use. Thanks to all of you who came to eat with us.                     Sincerly L/cpl Dan Rawstern  read more

      All three of these happened between Nov. 1966 and June 1968  I was having enough fun to extend once. We had been at Danang for awhile when we got word that charley had a sniper at the end of the airstrip taking shots at our planes as they come and go with a rifle. We couldn't tell if he hit ours or not but the security M.P.s left him alone for a long time because none our units had much problem with him. We figured he had a very cushey job shooting at our planes but not hitting anything and we could hear his shots at night when it was real quiet. But it all came to a head with the new commander arriving from the states and hearing of this, can't hit a thing sniper, being allowed to stay. The new commander ordered his M.P.s to get the man out of there and they did very quickly but charley replaced him almost immediately.  The new guy hit the first six planes to fly over that we knew of and we patched the planes. From then on the M.P.s kept the sniper out of the fly way. Another happening we had was our hangar shaking enough to lose a window every so often. The ground didn"t shake but the hangar did so we would step outside if we were working inside at the time. This went on for more than a week a time and then the first time it happened the stars and stripes came out and informed us the New Jersey was off shore firing sixteen inch diameter shells over us at targets inland.  The next time it happened  it went on that same amount of time. The stars and stripes came out a week later saying the Army had 16 inch gun implacements in place and firing across the valley from us. So each time we wondered what was causing the shaking only to find out in the stars and stripes a week later it was just us fighting a war.                          Thanks again L/cpl Dan Rawstern read more

      Well this story starts in early 1967. We are all working 12 hour shifts and we have metal corrigated 6/12 pitched roofs over wood and screen sided huts about 8' apart.  We also have open sand bag bunker in between for the mortar attacks that happened every so often.  We could tell when we were going to have an attack  because the vietnamese barber was always gone the day of the night attack.  They had been telling all of us to put roofs on our bunkers for awhile. Between all of us work was progressing slowly at best and non existant for some bunkers. The attack came late one night and one of the mortars made a direct hit on a bunker of 25 250 lb. bombs. We had been in our bunkers for some time when the hit came and we all watched this, at the time, neat mushroom cloud going up into the atmosphere, it felt like several minutes but was probally seconds, when the concusion blew through our huts and angled them away from the bomb dump at a 45 degree angle. Seconds later we here this rat a tat on our  hut roofs and a lot of guys saying words and flying out of our bunkers to get under the angled eaves and out of the falling schrapnel. Quite a few of us got burned by the falling hot schrapnel from our own bombs but only 13 put in for medals for being wounded in a war zone out of 400. Not all got wounded but a lot more than 13 but could not see trying to explain how you got wounded without it being an out and out lie. Needless to say those same bunkers got roofs on them  within the week and some were 2 to 3 ft high with old aircraft stripping metal in between the sand bag layers. They could have taken a direct hit and not bothered them or the guys inside. We may be slow at times but we got it done.                                               Thanks again Cpl. Dan Rawstern     read more

My  squadron was VMCJ 1 in Danang Vietnam but our particular group was from Cherry Pt. N. C. This happened right  after the tet of 1966 or 1967. We hadn't been at the beach very long when the 1st Marine Division came through our area on the way to the ocean with full gear on.  They had lost a lot of men going through the Aschua Valley trying to clean charley out of it . I  mean we were there just as they finished the cleanup and went by us on there way  to the ocean. They dropped there gear on the beach and walked into the ocean  clothes and all. We watched them go by and we all just quieted down as a sign of respect for what they had just done.  Well about this time an m.p. cruised up on the beach in front of 1st  and headed toward red beach . He hadn't went but a little ways when we noticed he stopped in front of a group of several hundred toward a thousand or better  Black sailors which had decided to demonstrate  there frustrations at the Navy then and there not knowing the 1st was there ahead of them on the beach. By the time the M.P. had stopped talking to the front 25 or 50 black sailors or so. The 1st didn't know what was going on for sure but quite a few of them came back out of the water and started setting there machine guns and mortars and every thing they had with them and started laying down behind them  with all weaponry pointed down beach toward the black sailors. By this time the ones of us that had witnessed this had taken our beers over to tables to watch what happened next . The M.P. finished his talk with those in the front ranks  and came over to where we were to also see what happened next. Well those boys in back didn't know what had happened up front  so they were shoving the  front forward and there eyes were getting pretty large facing the 1st. Word finally got to the boys in back  and they quietly dispersed and went back the way they had come back down  the beach .  Probably for the best.  Thanks for listening to something that could have been pretty serious but turned out pretty funny, at least for us spectators. read more

I was in the Marine Corps only four years  1965 to 1969.  Went from VMCJ  2, At Cherry Pt. N.C.to VMCJ 1, Danang So. Vietnam,  to VMCJ 3 at El Toro,  Cal.  to Camp Pendleton Brig, Oceanside Cal. Jet Aircraft Metalsmith.  except the last 6 months when they changed my MOS  to a mortar man.  While in Danang our squadron had four jet aircraft  An F10, nicknamed willie the whale for its top speed when new of 300 mph,F8 Crusader top speed when new of 450 mph, A6 intruder,high wing jet  top speed 5 to 600 mph, and last but best F4 Phantom in excess of mach 3 is all theyed tell us.  This particular day I was working on an A6  patching holes in the fuselage above the wings. Its takes a ladder to get up there.  I'm in the squadron area so its all concrete as far as the eye can see  I start hearing a sound  that still swear was lawnmower, but it ended up being one of the Army's spotter planes , small as a cessna or smaller . He puttered under the wing I was working on and asked where the HYMM's squadron was at. I pointed it out to him, thinking at the time that he could drive it through the man door , but about this time he said no wisecracks  Marine, and I said yes sir. This plane he was piloting had a place for a copilot where the copilots knees came just past the hips of the pilot. When he drove out from under the wing and turned toward the squad bay  there was a hole through the whole plane just behind the copilot. If that plane was 4 feet top to bottom there was a 16 inch diameter hole  inches from the back of the copilot's seat. I figured they might need some other cleaning up besides patching there aircraft. But they flew it and landed it and taxied it after getting hit . so that was a pretty good little plane also.  A little more information about our squadron is that it was a photo recon and at one time we had the air wing title for most photos taken in a one month, one million pictures.  Also at one time we decided to have a squadron picture taken with the men on the ground in the foreground of the four jet types parked on the tarmac  and the four aircraft types flying together overhead. They worked on this quite a while.  Because the Phantom wouldn't fly level at Willie the whales top speed of 300 mph. and they wern't going to have a tale dragging  Phantom with the other three flying level. So they tried the three flying level and the Phantom coming in and snapping the picture at the precise time when they were all inline. Didn't work, the Phantom always came out blurred or timing was off. So the photo guys gave up and decided to doctor the photo and patched the Phantom into the formation. We all thought that was a good idea so we were all a little suprised when we got our pictures of the event. In the air flying over were four planes, #34 was the Phantom. On the ground behind the squadron were four planes,  the Phantom was # 34 good trick, flying over us and setting on the tarmac  at the same time.  We didn't let photo guys live that down for a long time. read more

When some folks ask what branch of the service I was in, I reply, I was in the MILITARY branch. Some scratch their heads, but here in Mesquite, Tx most don't. American Legion Post 504

FIRST MARINE BRIGADE  KANEOHE BAY , IT WAS GOOD TO READ AND SEE SOME PHOTOS FROM LONG AGO. MY FIRST STOP THERE 39 YEARS AGO. I LOVED GOING TO THE BEACH AT THE END OF THE RUNWAY WITH BROTHERS IN LIFE AND DEATH, THE F4s SCREAMING OFF INTO THE BLUE, AMPHIPIOUS RECON JUMPING FROM SEAKNIGHTS INTO THE SEA BEYOND THE CORAL AND THE BREAKERS. IT IS GOOD TO REMEMBER THE FACES AND SMILES, OF THOSE I CHERISHED SO MUCH AND OWE MY LIFE TO.  read more